Posted!

Join the Conversation

Comments

Welcome to our new and improved comments, which are for subscribers only.
This is a test to see whether we can improve the experience for you.
You do not need a Facebook profile to participate.

You will need to register before adding a comment.
Typed comments will be lost if you are not logged in.

Please be polite.
It's OK to disagree with someone's ideas, but personal attacks, insults, threats, hate speech, advocating violence and other violations can result in a ban.
If you see comments in violation of our community guidelines, please report them.

‘We are set up for a disaster, but this is a cataclysm’: Feeding America needs your help

You can imagine that sentiment coming from any number of people on the front lines of the coronavirus pandemic – health-care workers, first-responders, essential businesses churning out protective gear. Our vocabulary is quickly reaching its limits for describing the magnitude of COVID-19’s impact.

“We are set up for a disaster, but this is a cataclysm,” is how Patti Habeck described the challenges facing food pantries and her organization, Feeding America Eastern Wisconsin.

A crisis like this not only tests us as individuals, it challenges our assumptions, especially about the safety net in communities that find themselves under duress at the very moment that support is most needed. Just like hospitals, doctors and nurses, and hospitality staff out-of-work, service agencies need our help.

Feeding America Eastern Wisconsin supplies food to about 400 hunger-relief organizations in the eastern half of the state.

When Habeck, its president and CEO, describes its operations, she sounds more like the head of a logistics and distribution firm than a nonprofit that supplies food to 400,000 people each year.

Yet it is that businesslike approach that helps make Feeding America Eastern Wisconsin effective. It uses donations to purchase food and receives donations from food companies and other suppliers. The items are shipped to its warehouses in Milwaukee and Appleton, sorted, re-packaged and picked up by partner food pantries.

Like many other organizations, USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin employees have volunteered at Feeding America Eastern Wisconsin and found it to be a great experience. Its warehouses are clean and well-organized. The staff and volunteers are first-rate. My conversation with Habeck was the result of one – of many – disruptions caused by the coronavirus. We had planned a face-to-face meeting to discuss the fall 2020 Stock the Shelves campaign.

Instead, we talked about the fragile state of hunger-relief efforts.

Everything that gets food to families has been disrupted, from trucks and volunteers to food and donations. Its system is designed to collect excess food in the system but, with panic purchasing and hoarding, there aren’t additional supplies to be bought or donated. Just-in-time trucking has been thrown into disarray, trying to make up for the demand.

Buy Photo

Jim Fitzhenry(Photo: Oshkosh Northwestern Media)

Just as critical are the volunteers at Feeding America Eastern Wisconsin and pantries, among them many retirees who are being advised to stay home because they fall in age ranges most vulnerable to the worst effects of the virus. At the same time, donations have fallen as record numbers of people have lost jobs or seen their nest eggs drop from the stock market’s decline.

“We’ve dipped into our reserves to do purchasing of food,” Habeck said. “We’ve shifted a lot of our discretionary dollars.”

Yet despite the strain, the organization is forging ahead. Small groups of staff and volunteers continue to work at safe distances from each other. Deliveries on docks are timed to avoid large gatherings of people.

Feeding America Eastern Wisconsin is forging new connections in communities as it supports pantries, especially rural ones served by a single pantry.

“We are determined to keep our doors open to feed people in need,” Habeck said. “We’re planning for the long haul, to scale up and sustain over time, and get to the other side. This is a long-term, not a short-term, event.”

You can find out more about helping at feedingamericawi.org. If you're looking for other ways to help, many local community foundations and United Way chapters have teamed on coronavirus relief funds.

Thank you, subscribers

Like Feeding America Eastern Wisconsin, our journalists are in this for the long haul. As this story has changed hour-by-hour, minute-by-minute, they’ve been rapidly updating stories, asking tough questions of people in authority and telling stories about how this has brought out the best in many folks.

Subscribers help make this coverage possible. We’ve made our coronavirus coverage free as a public service, but keep in mind that many of the businesses who advertise are hurting and scaling back. Our parent company, Gannett, set up a site where you can help support local businesses. Your subscriptions help support a robust free, local press.

Jim Fitzhenry is Executive Editor for the USA TODAY NETWORK-Central Wisconsin. Contact him at (920) 993-7154 or jfitzhen@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter at @JimFitzhenry, Instagram at @jimfitzhenry or LinkedIn.